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Colorado Eagles suffer lost weekend

Yellow Horn scores twice as Ontario's top line dominates play

By Adam Dunivan Sports Writer

Posted:
01/26/2013 10:17:59 PM MST

The play along the boards dictated the play in the center of the ice on Saturday night, and the Colorado Eagles lagged behind on both counts as they finished up a series against Ontario at the Budweiser Events Center.

Ontario's top scoring line simply ruled, and the Reign swept the series with a 5-3 win to spoil the Eagles' return to regular action after the All-Star Break. Colton Yellow Horn scored twice and added an assist, and Mario Lamoureux had three assists for Ontario, giving Drew O'Connell his third win in net.

Colorado received goals from Michael Forney, Dylan Hood and Arthur Bidwill, but the team was battling from behind all evening in falling to 20-20-1-2. After making some solid saves the first half of the second period, Kyle Jones surrendered three unanswered in the final 10:11 of that frame, blowing the doors open.

While head coach Chris Stewart thought his young defenders put forth the effort, he said the team's own failures in getting pucks to the center of the ice were critical in Saturday's loss.

"I brought it up after the first period, that we weren't moving the puck to the middle of the ice very much and I think that's where we kind of got caught up in not creating good opportunities to score," Stewart said. "Everything was on the outside alleys instead of us getting to the middle."

A 10-minute stretch in the middle frame was torturous for the hosts, a result of losing the individual battles along the boards. Ontario was able to cycle well, and possession time heavily favored the Reign (31-10-1-2).

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Once they got Colorado tied up in places they didn't want to be, the Reign found looks in front of Jones that were pretty low-risk plays.

After Hood tied the score at 2-all with a beautiful individual play, Justin Pender was able to gain Ontario's third lead -- and final one -- with a wide-open net after Jones couldn't contain a Lamoureux shot from the left circle. That made it 3-2, and Derek Couture made it 4-2 with a power play goal on another centering pass from the wall.

A back-breaker came with just 1:19 left, when the Eagles' newest player, Tommy Lange tried to break up a pass in front of Jones and it ended up on the stick of Yellow Horn, the league's leading scorer.

"They were just chucking pucks to the net, and we just have to do a better job of getting sticks," said Bidwill. "They were driving really hard to the net and we've got to really work on battling and getting in front of those guys so they can't get those second opportunities.

"It's that little, like 10-foot box in front of the net that we need to work on."

Yellow Horn scored a key goal in the first period, too, getting an open look from the slot with just a minute left. He now has 34 goals -- easily on pace to break 50.

"He's a good player, one you really have to keep an eye out for," Bidwill said.

Colorado's power play got back on track, finishing 2-for-6 for the night. That unit made the game a little closer with Bidwill's third-period goal just 1:58 in, but they couldn't close the gap any farther.

The Eagles will look for more consistency with a full week off before heading to Bakersfield.

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